The trip was a great success, minus one of the scariest hours of our lives the second day of the trip. We woke up in the school of Yaranda (where we stop for the night on the first day), and the woman from the family that looks after our canoe over night came to us and said, "you're canoe is gone - it went missing in the early morning." Our canoe - with all of our belongings, minus just the bedding stuff for the night, our computers, the solar panels, water filter, supplies for 3 weeks, not to mention the canoe and the motor to the canoe (which we don't own), went missing. Dino sprung into action, got some of the guys from the community to help him look for the canoe. He showed up an hour-and-a-half later with the canoe - apparently overnight when it rained, the rope to the canoe unlatched itself and went floating down the river on its own. They found it upright (thank goodness) with nothing missing and nothing damaged two meanders down the river. After that scare, we decided to enjoy the canoe ride the second day to the max.
The Anachere fiesta took place during our trip, and we had a great time watching and being a part of the festivities. Since the community had not had a fiesta in a couple of years, we wanted to help out with this one by providing food and soccer jerseys. Three teams from other nearby communities even came for the festivities.
The diet interviews went really well, and we were interested to see how the diet has changed in the last two months since our last trip to Anachere in March. While some families were doing well, it seemed as though it was the calm before the storm as many of the remaining chacos were becoming exhausted. The remaining plantains that didn't die in the flooding were being eaten.
Concepcion making jona, a plantain-based stew, little water, salt, and fish or game if available.
Alvaro, our new doctor, was a great help, especially since people in Anachere have extremely limited access to medical care. Here he is consulting Jose, one of the villagers.
Julio had great success before our interview. He went hunting the night before and killed a 25-kg wild deer. He gifted us close to a pound of fresh deer meat, which was a welcome change from the dried charque we'd been eating.
Julio also took us to a couple of vines so that we could measure the water content, as these are important sources of water in the forest when the streams dry up.
This was our last trip to Anachere. While we are excited to be wrapping up fieldwork and returning to the States, it was sad to say goodbye to our Anachere 'family'. We've spent a lot of time in the community and care a lot about the families there. They welcomed us to their community and houses, and we enjoyed getting to know them. One of our last days, we walked to Angel's house to visit and took this picture with him and his family. We had taken a picture with them exactly six months earlier in December. Just like in middle school when you get your yearbook and you're wearing the same shirt you wore for picture day, we realized that we wore the same outfits both times.
We're also saying goodbye to our first house. We became homeowners in November and have continued to make home improvements to the house and latrine. The house has a ton of spiders, termites, lizards, and even a snake or two, but it's been our home for much of this year, and we'll miss it.
Before leaving, Asher took water samples from stream Anachere and the river. The stream (pictured here) has attracted gold miners over the years, leading to water contamination.
Here is the view of our house from the river. Anyone want to buy it? Great real estate - located between the school and river.
We are prepping for our last trip to the field. The year is flying by, and we return to the States July 7.
